We’re delighted to say you can now use the SH:24 service in six regions of the UK. Southwark and Lambeth residents have been using SH:24 for a year now and last Friday we opened our virtual doors to people in Herefordshire, Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and Essex.
So, to help you get to know more about the new services and our partners, here’s a little bit more about each of the new regions.
Essex
Essex is a huge county with a mix of rural and urban populations. The Essex Sexual Health Service is led by Provide CIC. Provide are already delivering a number of health and wellbeing services across Essex. The service also includes Chelmsford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and South Essex NHS Partnership Trust. Terrence Higgins Trust will provide specialist HIV support while Brook will work with young people across the county. This unified service will provide access to sexual health and contraception solutions county wide (excluding Thurrock and Southend). On the Essex Sexual Health Service website you can find more details about how to book appointments and use the SH:24 service as well as watch a video about how it works.
www.essexsexualhealthservice.org.uk
Telford & Wrekin and Shropshire
We’ve teamed up with South Staffordshire and Shropshire Foundation Trust as well as Terrence Higgins Trust to provide support to people in the regions of Telford & Wrekin and Shropshire. As the two regions are very close, SSSFT have created the Openclinic service for people across both. Their new website is BEAUT (we helped out with the look and feel). Openclinic is based on the principles of accessibility - their approach is simple, open and non-judgemental.
Herefordshire
Herefordshire’s sexual health services are provided by the Herefordshire Health Partnership. Anyone who lives in Herefordshire can access the open access clinic which is currently located in Gaol Street Health Centre, Hereford. Walk-in sexual health services are provided most week day mornings while contraception clinics can be accessed by appointment. People under the age of 18 can access a dedicated clinic on a Wednesday afternoon. Our home STI test is offered to people who don’t have any physical symptoms but would like a test. Hereford is quite a rural area, so we’ll be interested to see where our orders come from.
http://www.knowyourstuff.nhs.uk/herefordshire/
It’s been exciting to see our first orders from these areas and we will keep you updated on progress. Our partners will be invited on to guest blog as the services develop.
If you would like SH:24 in your region, let us know in the sign-up form below - we need your postcode so we can tell the right local authorities.